Live streaming and video on demand are increasing in popularity. However, existing live video streaming approaches suffer, for example, from high buffering ratios, high join times, high join failures and low average bit rates. The economic impact of such challenges is substantial. Traditional content delivery networks (CDNs) are commonly intended for serving static files and web page fragments. However, a live video stream generally needs to travel from a live event location to distributed viewers in real-time. Given the constraints on real-time delivery and quality-of-service required, enterprises often cannot use existing content delivery networks for real-time geographic distribution of content, and often rely on dedicated leased lines for such transfers, resulting in an inefficient use of bandwidth and/or a reduced user experience.